Liberation in Submission
by TheDhampir
Summary: Elizabeth Price has one mission: bring John home. But working under her father and obeying his every command isn't all its cracked up to be - and it's certainly not easy.


"_In a society like this, there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want – not only you, your whole family and all people like you."  
_- Ai Weiwei

There's only so much you can do, only so many orders you can follow and obey, before you begin to go insane. It's almost worse, albeit hypothetically easier, when the person demanding so much of you is one you've looked up to and idolized for your entire life. The pressure only increases when the orders you follow are from a parent.

"Lizzie, you know I love you, but why you insist on keeping your abnormal abilities is beyond me."

Loyalty to the family was the only reason she was standing in Jedekiah Price's office, taking his verbal abuse as he sat behind his desk. Elizabeth had been given the option to eradicate her powers more than once, and it was used as a birthday and Christmas gift more than once, but her father didn't quite understand that she saw them as more of an advantage. "If I take your ridiculous cure, I won't be able to work in the field anymore, not like I get to now. I like my job."

Her job wasn't easy, which meant she had to stay on her toes – and that was something she enjoyed. If there was no challenge, she would have given in and taken the cure years ago. "As long as you're careful. You know you're mission. Same as it always is – find John and bring him home."

She said nothing as she turned to walk out of her father's office, brown hair flying out behind her even as she disappeared in a shimmering veil of blue.

Concrete materialized beneath her feet as she teleported to her usual post on top of an abandoned warehouse, the gray clouds above her seeming to span for miles – which they probably did. From so high, she could see from the port all the way to downtown, though not very clearly, but it was easy enough to test her telepathy and pick the minds of people nearby. If anyone saw anything that could indicate homosuperiors like herself, she was to look into it.

Tuesdays were usually quiet mornings besides the bustle of everyone trying to get to work on time and the occasional alley cat searching for food in dumpsters three stories below, and another quiet morning wasn't the part of her job that was fun. Luckily, this Tuesday was not a usual one.

The loud telepathic shout originating from the boardwalks to her right made her jump into action – literally. With a shimmer of blue, she went from falling thirty feet to crouching out of sight behind a boat, her thoughts focused on nothing but the shout in her head.

John's shout.

He was the one person her father ever had her specifically search for, and the one person she hoped to never have to encounter. She and John Young had never met. She had, however, met him before he chose a new name and escaped the controlling authority of Jedekiah. They'd been best friends, trusting each other with their secrets and hiding their abilities from everyone else around them. They'd done everything together.

Until he'd been the one who'd escaped working for ULTRA and she was the one left trapped.

Not daring to move until she knew it would be too late to stop him and his companion, Elizabeth hadn't even expected to be seen. Except that two ULTRA agents had appeared on the other side of them, and the two renegade homosuperiors started straight for her.

She met John's gaze for only an instant, but it felt like much longer – her green eyes catching his brown ones until she found her thoughts and gathered them in a jumbled mess, teleporting for the third time that morning to somewhere no one would be able to find her.

*LIS*

"TIM, show me any activity you have regarding Elizabeth Price."

John had locked the door behind him when he entered the make-shift office, assuring that no one would follow him as he questioned the supercomputer in private. The electronic voice in response had, instead, turned the tables and began questioning him. "Jedekiah's daughter, John? Is there a reason behind your sudden curiosity?"

He had half a mind to chalk up the entire experience that morning as a hallucination, as him finally losing his mind from staying underground for so much of his life, but even hallucinations couldn't be that vivid. "C'mon, TIM, psychiatric history, educational history, anything that could point to her being one of us."

"I have nothing of that sort, John, only that she attended The Beacon School and graduated with mostly advanced placement classes. There's no medical history, including mental health, aside from yearly flu shots and chicken pox when-"

"When she was six, yeah, I know. Thank, TIM."

With a sigh, he sat down in one of the few chairs they kept in the computing room and ran a hand through his already messy hair. He'd known Elizabeth had abilities, but with Jedekiah as a father, it was only reasonable to assume that she'd taken advantage of his so-called cure to be normal. Everything that happened on the docks that morning had proven his assumptions wrong.

*LIS*

She was directly escorted to her father's office when she returned to ULTRA headquarters that evening, and he'd promptly instructed her to take a seat in his chair behind his desk while he paced in front of her. He took seven steps and turned. Seven steps and turned. Seven steps and turned. Seven seven seven seven.

"You let him get away." It was foolish to assume he wouldn't catch wind of her sudden disappearance that morning, and she immediately turned her gaze to the glass surface of the desk in front of her. "I told you before you weren't ready for another job like this, not after last time, but you were the one who insisted, Elizabeth. You're the one who said you'd be able to do this. But lo and behold, on encounter with dear old John and you can't even convince him to come back to us." Jedekiah shook his head in disappointment, stopping his pacing to lean against the desk and look down at her. "No more jobs, not until you can prove you're ready. Don't try and fight me on this or I'll take your abilities like I take all the others'. Don't doubt that I will. This is the first time I've had to do anything remotely like punishing you since your abilities first manifested, and I will do it again if I must."

Before he could say anything more, Elizabeth was on her feet with a defiant frown. He may be her father, but she was twenty one, and he didn't have that kind of power over her. "You can't keep me out of the field. I'll teleport anywhere I want and you can't stop me."

The look in his eyes made her sit down again, out of dim fear than anything else. This was the man who had destroyed his own brother in his quest to rid the world of these people he didn't understand, and there was no way of knowing who he'd hurt or how much damage he'd do if he was angry. "I'll have a vial on standby. Actually, I'll have two – one for you, and one for John when we take him in. Go on, now. It's your night to make dinner."

She was on her feet again in an instant, this time walking obediently out of his office and toward the elevator, not daring to use her teleportation with his threat still hanging between them. It was a strange feeling, being afraid of a parent – but that's what came from having a father who thought you were a monster when the real monster was him.

**A/N**

**My first Tomorrow People fic, and boy do I have plans. I'll post mostly ever Wednesday if I can, but school – all 16 credit hours of it – might make that a bit difficult. There will be no chapter this Wednesday, but the chapters from here on out will be a bit longer. I'll incorporate a lot of what happens in episodes into each chapter, much like I do with my other fics, but with two fics to update each week, it's more than likely that I'll fall behind. If you want information on where I am in chapters, or if you want to see my live tweeting each week, follow me at WritingDhampir on twitter. I do not own The Tomorrow People in any way, shape, or form.**

**Peace In.**


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